


stargazer

by ohvictor



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Nonbinary Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-08 12:39:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14694408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohvictor/pseuds/ohvictor
Summary: Nagisa shows up on Rei's doorstep one night, some time after the SS.





	stargazer

**Author's Note:**

> i've wanted to write rei & nagisa for a While and this is... the first thing i finished, i suppose. contains vague winter live spoilers, obviously. rei is nonbinary (they/them). the title is from listening to [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fN710hN7QI) while writing most of this.

Of all the people Rei expects to find on their doorstep at one in the morning, Ran Nagisa ranks around the bottom of the list.

And yet, they don’t think they could conjure this convincing a hallucination of him, either. Not with imperfections like the stray hairs escaping his ponytail and hanging limp next to his cheeks, or the chap and scab of his lips, or the frighteningly casual jeans and hoodie he’s wearing, shoulders hunched in protest of the cold night air. A hoodie in January - truly an odd person.

“This is a surprise,” Rei says.

Ran Nagisa nods. Under Rei’s curious scrutiny, he begins chewing on his bottom lip, clearly thinking of a response, or perhaps finding the words for it. “I...saw your younger brother at my recent live,” he explains eventually. “It reminded me of you.”

“Ah, the SS,” Rei nods. Ritsu had mentioned this interaction, in fact - a reminder of a time when the two would get confused for one another a lot more often. “I wasn’t able to attend myself, but I watched a recording of your performance... And our Trickstar, of course.”

In truth, there was no way Rei could have escaped hearing about the SS, even if they’d locked themself in their coffin for the past few weeks and received no visitors. The very air buzzed with news - Saegusa’s manipulation tactics, the exposed scandal of Akehoshi’s father, the miraculous win pulled from nowhere. Rei remembers the way Nagisa’s face glowed onstage, like he’d never performed like _that_ before. Like he was experiencing joy for the very first time.

It was like a completely different person than the statue they remembered from the old Fine. And both seem completely different from the person standing in front of Rei, shoving his cold hands in his jeans pockets.

Well, Rei would rather Nagisa look lost and small inside the warmth of Rei’s house than outside on their doorstep.

“Come in,” they say, stepping aside to give Nagisa a doorway to step through. Nagisa’s legs barely bend as he crosses the threshold, so frozen with cold they must be; Rei wonders how long he was standing outside before he rang the bell.

Once inside with the door shut, Nagisa gives Rei a look like a cat who’s yowled for the door to open only to discover they don’t, actually, want to go outside.

“Can I offer you anything,” Rei starts, knowing full well the fridge is stocked solely with tomato juice and blood. Nagisa finishes removing his shoes and cranes his head to look deeper into the house, spots Rei’s grand piano, the only thing in this room not covered in dust, hunched in a corner, and makes a beeline for it.

Rei follows him, amused. Nagisa sits on the bench, scooting over to leave Rei room to join him, and spreads his fingers across the keys. Then he glances up at Rei, as though needing permission.

“You’re in Itsuki-kun’s spot,” Rei tells him, sitting down on the bench.

Nagisa blinks. “...Valkyrie?”

“Yes.” Rei isn’t sure what it means that Nagisa recognizes Shu’s name. “An old friend, who sometimes comes over and composes with me.”

“Ah...” Nagisa shifts in his seat, and then arches his fingers over the keys with renewed purpose. He begins to play something, barely looking at the keys as his hands move over them. It’s not until he reaches the missing vocal part that Rei recognizes one of Adam’s songs from the SS.

“That’s your song, isn’t it?”

Nagisa nods. “ _Ruler’s Truth_ ,” he says, his English even better than Rei’s. He hums along with the vocal, and Rei wonders if Nagisa wrote this song himself.

Probably not. A unit like Adam, manufactured for a purpose, probably doesn’t write its own songs. And yet, to think that Nagisa is attached enough to it that he can play it without sheet music makes Rei a little sad.

They sit and listen as Nagisa plays. His fingers on the keys are near effortless, and his hands are big enough to easily span octaves. His fingering is clumsy, though, and Rei itches to make suggestions Nagisa doesn’t need.

When the song is finished, Nagisa sits back and removes his hands from the keys, as if to say, _Your turn_. Rei understands. The closest song they have to what Nagisa offered is probably “Melody in the Dark”, so that’s what they play. Usually when they play this with a guest at their piano, it’s Shu, and he’s grumbling about things like tossing in English words for effect or how much better Rei’s music would sound if they something something, something violin, and if he really starts laying into it Rei just plays louder to drown him out. Nagisa doesn’t speak until Rei finishes, and even then he sits in silence, looking like the statue Rei remembers.

“What is Trickstar like, at your school?” Nagisa asks Rei.

The question isn’t entirely unexpected. Rei leans back, stretching out their spine. “Bright,” they say. “Full of potential. I grew up with Isara-kun - he is my brother’s partner. And another old friend of mine thinks very highly of Hidaka-kun.” Rei wonders, suddenly, if Nagisa knows who Hokuto is, or was. “My club and I had the pleasure of helping them prepare for their first live. They are all very good, talented kids.”

Nagisa nods, brow furrowed.

“I know what they have, that we don’t,” he says slowly, his eyes finally meeting Rei’s as he scans Rei’s face. “I just thought—it wouldn’t matter so much.”

He stands, straightening the sleeves of his hoodie. “I should be going. Thank you for having me.”

There’s suddenly a lot Rei wants to ask him. Not about the SS, but about _him_ \- his life since Yumenosaki, his school, his unit. If he still likes rocks and crushing people’s spirits as much. If he’s sleeping okay. It’s not as if Rei cares so much about Ran Nagisa (and if they do, they don’t want to admit it), but the guy came all the way here. It has to mean something.

They trail after Nagisa as he returns to the door, toeing his shoes on again. Could they ask for his number? But Rei barely uses their own phone, and Nagisa seems the type to not use one either. They also don’t know how Nagisa knew their address, but it’s not worth asking - that awful redhead in his unit probably found it out. Relying on fate to draw them together again sounds nice and romantic, but Rei isn’t as patient as they’d like to be in their old age.

“Come and see me again,” they say, and Nagisa doesn’t lift his gaze from his shoes, but Rei knows he’s listening. “Anytime you’d like.”

Nagisa nods. “Okay.”

He opens the door, fumbling with the lock for a moment, and then he’s gone, trotting down the steps and down the sidewalk. Rei closes the door before Nagisa’s fully out of sight - better not to ruin the illusion of his appearance.

They stare at the closed door until they hear footsteps behind them, and Ritsu’s voice. “Is he gone?”

“Ah.” Rei turns around to see Ritsu standing across the room, bundled up in sweats. “Yes. Did we disturb you?”

“No, I’m used to you playing piano late at night anyway.” Ritsu shuffles over to the piano and leans on it, regarding Rei. “I just didn’t wanna talk to him. Have you met the other guy in his unit? Maa-kun really doesn’t like him.”

“So I’ve heard,” Rei nods. “He played me one of his unit’s songs. Have you heard it?”

“Yeah,” Ritsu says, “I was at the live.”

“Oh, yes, that’s right.”

Ritsu gives Rei a tired look for interrupting him. “They’re _good_ , you know. I mean, of course Maa-kun’s unit beat them, but... They didn’t have to use that evil guy’s tactics to get ahead. Maybe they would’ve done better if they hadn’t.”

He lifts himself up from the piano, sighing as his back cracks. “Ow. I’m going to use the kitchen, so go somewhere else.”

“Okay,” Rei says, and watches Ritsu haul himself into the kitchen. They think about sitting at the piano some more, but then Ritsu starts banging things around in the kitchen, so they retreat upstairs instead.

In their room, they decide that it’s past midnight and they’re allowed to search Ran Nagisa on social media if they want to. He seems to have a minimal social media presence, to Rei’s dismay, but the other guy from his unit, Tomoe, has active profiles on every site Rei checks, and Nagisa _occasionally_ appears on his photos. There’s actually a couple of painfully cute selfies that make Rei reconsider the idea of not caring about Ran Nagisa, and they try to save them to their phone before remembering that it’s very likely that someone else will see them, like Koga or Wataru, and they’ll be very embarrassed.

After that, they close all of Tomoe’s social media and lie facedown on their bed. Why did Ran Nagisa show up at their house? Why do they have a feeling they’ll be thinking about this all week? They really do hope Nagisa will take them up on their clumsy offer and visit again, or perhaps Rei could visit him themself, even though that might be odd. Now that the SS is over, there’s no reason for Yumenosaki students to involve themselves with the members of Eden, except that they probably should, in the spirit of...what is it? Fraternizing with the enemy, except in a positive way? That and sometimes Rei feels they have more in common with Nagisa and Tomoe Hiyori, who ran from Yumenosaki after their hellish contract with Tenshouin terminated and found themselves an even worse unit, than they do with Trickstar, or the other bright idols of Yumenosaki. Except there’s no way Eden is better than Undead, especially now that Kaoru attends practice more and Adonis speaks more without prompting, and, well. Things are better now than they were the last time Rei was in the same room as Ran Nagisa, that’s for sure, even if they barely realize it until Nagisa is in their living room.

This sort of self-reflection is exhausting, and they flop over onto their back, staring at their bedroom ceiling. There’s other things they should do tonight, like compose new songs or edit old ones, or do some paperwork for upcoming lives, or take a fucking shower, but it’s past midnight, and they indulge themself with fifteen more minutes of wondering whether Nagisa’s hair is as soft as it looks (which is to say, not very soft), and whether Nagisa will come visit them again, and what he might say, and what Rei might say, if he does.

**Author's Note:**

> imagine nagisa playing [this wonderful piano cover of ruler's truth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ez5s0WvUo). 
> 
> i might update this with more chapters in the future (i like the concept of these two), but it's a one-shot for now.


End file.
